Bill Hagerty: Reader, beware: there is a sting in the tale of Posh 'n' Becks 'n' Sara Cox

Sylvester Bolam, editor of the Daily Mirror in the 1950s, famously defended sensationalism in newspapers, claiming: "It means the vivid and dramatic presentation of events so as to give them a forceful impact on the mind of the reader." What it did not mean, said Bolam, was the distorting of truth. Neither does it mean the manipulation of stories to feed the demands for greater circulation and higher profits.

The News of the World's "world exclusive" about a plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham, far right, was sensational, no doubt. But when the judge directed the jury to throw out of court the case against five men brought to trial, suspicions of distortions of the truth piled like rotting fish on the revelation that the paper had paid £10,000 to an informant with a criminal record. Worse, the malodorous stench of entrapment in a wholly unethical journalistic "sting" filled the nostrils of journalists and critics of the media alike.

With the national press experiencing a period of public abhorrence, the collapse of the trial and the judge's decision to refer the paper's involvement to the Attorney General is as welcome as rabies.

Friday's High Court victory by disc jockey Sara Cox, far left, who successfully claimed that photographer Jason Fraser and The People had invaded her privacy by publishing pictures of her naked on a beach, will do nothing to improve the public's view of the tabloids as prurient snoopers. The collateral damage to the industry outweighs even the £50,000 damages and costs awarded against them.

Yet it is unfair for all tabloids to get a bad press. Most editors are wary of bringing more opprobrium down upon the trade. At The People I proceeded as if walking on eggshells when pursuing the story of then minister David Mellor's hypocritical liaison with an actress. Tapes made by a third party of the couple's conversations were monitored and their meeting place kept under surveillance, but I was emphatic that none of my staff should enter the house or assist in the recording.

The News of the World says its kidnap story was obtained by "a thorough and legitimate investigation".

But it is no longer good enough for the press to claim to be virtuous; it must be seen to be virtuous. In its too frequently ignoble recent history, the News of the World has employed dubious tactics in "exposing" such indiscretions as disc jockey Johnnie Walker's cocaine habit (journalistic conduct criticised by the magistrate), drug dealing by Rhodri Giggs, brother of Manchester United's Ryan (charges dropped after CPS offered no evidence), and chit-chat about the Royal Family by the Countess of Wessex after reporter Mazher Mahmood posed as an aide to a potential client of her PR company.

The real problem with unchecked journalistic practice that brushes the perimeters of the law and flirts with the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct is that other editors will be tempted to adopt them in the hope that they can match the News of the World's circulation success. Yet you can bet all your worldly goods that the Attorney General will take no action, the PCC will ruminate before shutting several stable doors after an entire string of horses have bolted, and the paper's proprietor will fail to censure its staff.

Unhealthy competition, greed and unscrupulous bosses make journalists what they are. They, and those who direct them, should keep Bolam in mind. He was right about sensationalism, but he up ended in jail for contempt.

Bill Hagerty, former editor of 'The People', edits the 'British Journalism Review'